Scharlotte Fitzgerald says she began taking hormone replacement drugs in 1994. In 2001 she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Fitzgerald and her husband Larry filed a personal injury suit against the drug companies in the Beaumont Division of the Eastern District of Texas on Nov. 2. They are seeking in excess of $75,000 in damages.

“This lawsuit asserts claims for negligence; strict product liability for failure to warn, strict product liability for design defect; and breach of implied warranty against the defendants responsible for the design, manufacture, production, testing, study, inspection, mixture, labeling, marketing, advertising, sales, promotion and/or distribution of those hormone therapy products that caused her breast cancer,” the plaintiffs’ original complaint states.

The plaintiffs’ claim that the defendants had an obligation to provide warnings about risks and side effects of their hormone therapy drugs as soon as it was aware of them. The suit alleges that the drug companies failed to disclose “an increased incidence and risk of strokes, blood clots, heart attacks, breast cancers and ovarian cancer from these drugs.”

Plaintiffs also assert that the defendants made claims regarding health benefits of the drugs and should have known “that these claims were false and misleading.”

The defendants also gave a false impression that adequate pre-marketing clinical testing and research and post-marketing surveillance had been done, the plaintiffs claim.

“Plaintiff would not have ingested the hormone therapy drugs … or would have discontinued their use, or would have used safer alternative methods, had defendants disclosed the true health consequences, risks, and adverse effects, including the increased incidence and risk of breast cancer and other illnesses, caused by their hormone drugs,” the complaint states.

In the first claim against defendants, the plaintiff alleges that the companies were negligent by failing to exercise reasonable care in designing, manufacturing, testing and distributing the hormone replacement drugs.

“Defendants knew or should have known that their hormone therapy drugs caused unreasonable harm and dangerous side effects that many users would be unable to remedy by any means,” the petition states. “Despite this, defendants continued to promote and market their hormone therapy drugs for use by consumers, including plaintiff, when safer and more effective methods of countering the negative health effects of menopause were available.”

The petition also includes claims for strict liability through failure to warn and design defect.

“These hormone therapy drugs were each dangerous to an extent beyond that which would be contemplated by the ordinary consumer who purchased them,” the suit says. “They were more dangerous than plaintiff contemplated. The risk of each of these hormone therapy drugs outweighs its utility.”

The companies also breached implied warranty, the suit said, because the sold the drugs as being of “merchantable quality and safe and fit for their intended use.”

Scharlette Fitzgerald is seeking damages to exceed $75,000, attorney fees, costs of suit and other relief that the court may deem just and proper.

Her husband, Larry Fitzgerald is also seeking monetary damages for his loss of spousal services, society and companionship.

SOURCE: Hormone Replacement Therapy › Lawsuit filed over HRT drugs blamed for breast cancer

Earlier this month a jury in Nevada awarded $134 million in a similar case against Wyeth, which is appealing the verdict. Wyeth spokesman Doug Petkus would not comment specifically about the Hesch case, but said it”s the first lawsuit he”s heard about since the Nevada judgment.

Sharon Hesch was first prescribed the hormone therapy medication Provera and Premarin in May 1998, her lawsuit says. She switched to only Premarin in January 2001. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in January 2002.

Sharon Hesch alleges the drug companies acted recklessly and without regard to public safety.

“The defendants misled both the medical community and the public at large, including the plaintiff Sharon Hesch, by falsely representing the safety of their products,” her lawsuit says.

In the Nevada case, a jury awarded three women $35 million for expenses, pain and suffering, and added $99 million in punitive damages. Wyeth spokesman Lawrence Stein said it was a flawed verdict in a trial “riddled with errors.”

Petkus said 20 other hormone therapy cases have gone to trial or were otherwise resolved. He said three went in Wyeth”s favor, two were plaintiff awards that were thrown out by courts, three were dismissed, and 12 were withdrawn by plaintiffs.

October 25th, 2007

SOURCE: Hormone Replacement Therapy › Hormone therapy led to cancer